- Shoes that curve upward in the front, a design known as a toe spring, allow your foot muscles to not have to work as hard when walking or running than if you are wearing flatter-soled shoes, according to a study Check out most of your comfy footwearespecially your Scientific Reports.
- The more curved a toe spring is, the less power your foot has to exert when pushing off the ground. Over time, that may lead to weaker foot muscles, according to the research.
- Though more research is needed, weak foot muscles may increase your susceptibility to inflammation and injuries like plantar fasciitis.
Check out most of your comfy footwear—especially your running shoes—and you may notice the toe of the shoes bend upward in the front. That curve is called a toe spring, a feature that constantly flexes the toe box above ground.
Though this ubiquitous footwear feature helps you spring off the ground with greater ease, it also may make your foot muscles weaker over time and set the stage for painful conditions like plantar fasciitis, Health - Injuries Scientific Reports.
In the study led by Harvard evolutionary biologist and barefoot running researcher Daniel E. Lieberman, Ph.D., scientists had 13 volunteers walk on a specially designed treadmill equipped with force plates and an infrared camera system that measured how much power they were putting into every step.
The volunteers walked barefoot, and they walked in four pairs of custom-made sandals. The sandals had varying degrees of toe spring angles, ranging from 10 degrees to 40 degrees, designed to mimic the stiffness and shape of popular footwear.
Researchers found that the more the shoes curved up in the front, the less propulsive force the walkers generated with their metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joints, which is where the toe bones connect to the foot bones. That means your foot muscles are doing less work when you move; on one hand, that makes walking and running feel easier, but on the other hand, it may inhibit or decondition your foot muscles over time.
“It stands to reason that if the foot muscles have to do less work, then they’re probably going to have less endurance given that many thousands of times a day you push off on your toes,” Lieberman said in a press release.
All About 75 Hard plantar fasciitis—a stubbornly persistent, painful inflammation of the thick band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes, say the researchers.
“From an evolutionary perspective, wearing modern shoes that have’s feet is plantar fasciitis,” Lieberman said in the release. “We think that what happens is that people are relying on their plantar fascia to do what muscles normally do. When you get weak muscles and the plantar fascia has to do more work, it’How Run/Walk Intervals Can Improve Back Pain.”
“This might also explain why people can run into trouble if they transition too rapidly to barefoot running,” Lieberman told Runner’s World.
Lieberman is quick to note that the connection between toe springs and foot inflammation is still hypothetical and more research needs to be done on that relationship, as well as other elements of footwear, such as stiff soles and the amount of cushion, Do You Go to the Bathroom Enough.
“From an evolutionary perspective, wearing modern shoes that have arch supports, cushioning, and other supportive features is a very recent phenomenon,” said researcher Freddy Sichting, Ph.D., professor of human locomotion at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany in the press release.
Though more research is needed, evidence suggests that those features may result in weak foot muscles, Sichting said in the release. “Walking in shoes with comfortable features such as a toe spring has its costs.”
Of course, you shouldn’t expect popular shoe manufacturers to stop using toe springs anytime soon.
“We like comfort,” Lieberman said in the release. “That’Bear Squat to Downward Dog Dynamic Stretch.”
How Body Image Can Affect Your Run three exercises Of course, you shouldnt expect popular shoe manufacturers to stop using toe springs anytime soon:
- Running Shoes - Gear
- Trigger Point Release for Feet
- Toe Lifts
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